Mother Teresa

Giver:	Individual
Receiver:	Individual or unstructured/informal group
Gift:	Time
Approach:	Philanthropy
Issues:	10. Reduced Inequalities
Included in:	Religious Giving

1910 - 1999

Asia,Worldwide

Mother Teresa (1910-1997), widely known as the Saint of the Gutters, was a Catholic nun who devoted her life to caring for the world’s most vulnerable and marginalized people, particularly those contending with hunger, homelessness, disease and death. As the founder of the Missionaries of Charity, an order of nuns based in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), India, she became one of the most renowned humanitarian figures of the 20th century. Accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, Mother Teresa dedicated the honor to “all those people who feel unwanted, unloved, uncared, thrown away of the society, people who have become a burden to the society, and are ashamed by everybody.”

Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in 1910 in the city of Skopje, now the capital of Northern Macedonia. She was raised in an ethnic Albanian family of devout Catholic faith. In 1928 she joined the Sisters of Loreto, an Irish order of nuns with missions in India. She began her novitiate at the Loreto Convent in Darjeeling a year later. Upon taking her first religious vows in 1931, she adopted the name Teresa, after Thérèse of Lisieux, the patron saint of missionaries.

Mother Teresa taught in the Loreto Convent School in Kolkata from 1931 to 1948. During these years, she became increasingly concerned by the human suffering she witnessed in the slums of Kolkata, the result of widespread material poverty and the catastrophic Bengal famine of 1943. Inspired by a spiritual calling, she established her own religious order in 1946, intent on serving and living among those excluded and forgotten by society.

Officially recognized by Pope Pius XII in 1950, the Missionaries of Charity began as a tiny congregation represented by Mother Teresa and 10 of her former pupils. Fearless and hardworking in her leadership of the order, Mother Teresa quickly attracted followers and patrons who were inspired by her mission to provide love, comfort and dignity to members of society she described as “the poorest of the poor.” At the time of her death in 1997, the Missionaries of Charity had grown to include more than 4,000 nuns performing service at 610 centers in 123 countries.

As she gained international prominence, Mother Teresa drew various criticisms, including charges of unsanitary conditions in some of her care facilities, as well as concerns over her willingness to accept donations from political dictators. Also, her vehement opposition to abortion and contraception -- as well as her public condemnation of women who chose to terminate pregnancies – placed her in contention with feminists and other advocates for reproductive freedom.

Despite these issues, Mother Teresa is venerated around the world as an enduring symbol of compassion and charity. In 2016, Pope Francis canonized her as a Catholic saint.

Contributors: Maha Tazi, Erin Brown

Source type	Full citation	Link (DOI or URL)
Website	Jerome, Richard. “Mother Teresa: The Portrait of Christian Charity”. LIFE magazine, n.d.	https://www.life.com/history/mother-teresa-the-portrait-of-christian-charity/
Book	Muggeridge Malcolm. “Something Beautiful for God: Mother Teresa of Calcutta”. Harper One, 1971.	https://sk.sagepub.com/video/mother-teresa-of-calcutta-something-beautiful-for-god
Publication	Ponio, Judy. “How Mother Teresa Changed the World Through Charity”. Soup Kitchen, 2021.	https://ofhsoupkitchen.org/mother-teresa-charity
Book	Raghu Rai and Navin Chawla. Faith and Compassion: The Life and Work of Mother Teresa. Element Books Ltd. 1996.	ISBN 978-1-85230-912-1
Publication	Sebba, Anne. “Mother Teresa Beyond the Image”. New York Times Archives, 1997.	https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/first/s/sebba-teresa.html
	Mother Teresa – Acceptance Speech. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach. 1979	https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1979/teresa/acceptance-speech